www.inddist.com 10 INDUSTRIAL DISTRIBUTION / September/October 2017
customers didn’t like the way their order item sequence
showed, so Midland allowed them to customize it.

The growth of Midland’s e-commerce has also aided
its sales and customer service team, rather than replace
it — as is the concern of some in the industry regarding
business technology.

“It’s lightened the load of order entry, but it’s still
very important to us to have a human being answer the
phone and take care of things,” Powell says. “It gives the
customer service person and inside sales team time to
build relationships because they’re not busy doing data or
order entry all day long.”

Digital Edge

Midland’s digital offerings go far beyond just
e-commerce. Midland’s website is packed with product
information, catalogs, customer marketing tools,
company information and it makes it easy to create
an account. The website also has a ‘Knowledge Bank’
section loaded with educational PDFs for need-to-know
information about products.

“We put way more information online than in our printcatalog,” Powell says. “It’s important for customers tohave that quick, instant information of knowing what’s instock and when it’s going to ship.”Midland’s mobile app — launched in 2012 — is able toscan barcodes. The company offers private bin labels thatcustomers can order online and print, which the app canthen scan and pull up product information, stock levels andprice. Customers can also load up a purchase order with theapp, which allows them to save and finish the order later.

The company also experimented with launching
another app for customers looking for bin stocking, but
ultimately nixed the project as it required more work for
the distributor.

“It was worth a try because we were listening to thecustomer,” Powell says. “We try to come up with tools to

Data

Along with e-commerce and account manager features that are only available to Midland
customers, the company has begun analyzing
its data to bring the best value to its customers
and present them with opportunities to buy new
products.

CEO Vince Hodes explains: “We put a type oneach customer and have built identities based onwhat products a certain customer type usuallybuys. We provide much more focused informationto our reps to be able to ask the right questionsduring sales calls. We also see trends in customerbehavior and are beginning to see where new op-portunities lie in helping our distributors attractnew business. We partner with our customersto market our products, and will now providenew marketing tools and incentives to buy moreproduct groups from us. With more than 15,000different items in stock, we can help identifywhat items to sell to what customers and providethem the tools to sell those items. We are justgetting started on the potential we have to assistour customers and help them make more money.The future is very bright for Midland customers!”Mike Hockett and Midland national sales manager Brett Powellin Midland’s Kansas City warehouse. (ID photo)